Passenger Trains > Comet Cars in Sacramento??

Yes. And no, your not seeing things. Starting today or tomorrow, 714 will run with the comet equipment. 718/711 returns to regular equipment, and both comet sets are assigned to 714. Here is the rotation. 714 becomes 703, 703 becomes 702, 702 becomes 715. Oh frabjous day!! Callooh!! Callay!!!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/14 07:17 by Shogun.

Somehow this is HoggerMatt's fault...

defect_detector Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Somehow this is HoggerMatt's fault...

Lol! Ok Marshall if you say so! We just wanted them to be closer to you.

More like you and yo-yo celebrating the fact that I moved up to the FRC now.

And Sacramento did see the Comet set the night they hit the semi at Winton. 718 and 703 traded trains that night as the AMTK 90225 had to be set out at Fluhr (Castle). They returned to BFD Sunday morning as 702.

Nah, I think Matt has "the power".....

AJ

So does anyone know why this change is being made?

At first we were told the Comet cars would be on the 712/717 turn so the cars could spend the night in Oakland (in case any major repairs were necessary), then right before they went into service the decision was made to put the Comet cars on the 718/711 turn so the cars would spend 5 daylight hours in the yard (at least that's what I was told.)

Both plans seemed logical for these old cars... this one, not so much. These Comet cars will now only be in Oakland every other day and from experience 702 is one of the busier runs of the day (especially on Saturday) since it's the first trip Southbound.

Also, unless I'm mistaken all but one Comet car has been delivered at this point. Anyone know when a second trainset will get the Comet cars and what turn it will be used on?

EDIT: I now see that in the original post it says that *both* Comet car trainsets will used on the 714/703/702/715 turn. Not sure if that was edited while I was writing my post.

Posted from iPhone

Ricky Courtney
Seattle, WA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/14 08:07 by rickycourtney.

Think of them as new cars in old body shells.. they had a complete rebuild and have new systems in them. They should be capable of going the distance.

I hate to lead off with one of the "Does anybody know?" phrases but, how many of the California Cars were freed up with the arrival of the Comet rebuilds, and what's the status of the extra California cars?
It looks like they've allowed the CCJPA to provide a full café car or California Car coach/snack car for every consist instead of using leased Amtrak Superliner coach/snack cars, but are the freed-up coaches being used to augment the normal five-car consists or being held for some future service expansion?

Comet cars on 714 TODAY. San Jac"a are seeing 6 car trains...712 has the 156 and 6 cars today....

calzephyr48 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Think of them as new cars in old body shells..
> they had a complete rebuild and have new systems
> in them. They should be capable of going the
> distance.

Don't be fooled by the city my in signature... I lived in Fresno until December. I was able to ride these Comet cars a number of times before I left and I was impressed. Despite taking much longer than expected, the Beech Grove shops really did a wonderful job rebuilding these cars.

MarinCommuter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I hate to lead off with one of the "Does anybody
> know?" phrases but, how many of the California
> Cars were freed up with the arrival of the Comet
> rebuilds, and what's the status of the extra
> California cars?
> It looks like they've allowed the CCJPA to provide
> a full café car or California Car coach/snack car
> for every consist instead of using leased Amtrak
> Superliner coach/snack cars, but are the freed-up
> coaches being used to augment the normal five-car
> consists or being held for some future service
> expansion?

Going by the normal consist of a San Joaquin 2 coach/baggage cars, 4 coach cars, 2 café cars and 2 cab cars should be freed up.

The plan was for the each of the remaining bi-level San Joaquin trainsets to get an additional coach car (bringing the consist up to six cars) and for the Capitol Corridor to get the two Café cars. That will allow the CCJPA to return the 2 Superliner coach/snack cars they've leased from Amtrak (but they will still use 2 Surfliner coach/café cars.)

Ricky Courtney
Seattle, WA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/14 11:53 by rickycourtney.

Thanks for the info.

I thought I heard some talk of maybe adding another roundtrip to the San Joaquin in the near future?

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

Speaking of Comets... what's THIS all about?!

---

BoilingMan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Speaking of Comets... what's THIS all about?!


http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3360270,3361254#msg-3361254

Still looks better than an F59.


-Tom

BoilingMan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Speaking of Comets... what's THIS all about?!

And that right there ladies and gentlemen is why Caltrans ripped the cab controls out of the Comet cars and put NPCU's on the end of these trainsets. I shudder at the thought of what a Comet car would have looked like after that accident.

Posted from iPhone

Ricky Courtney
Seattle, WA

GP25 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I thought I heard some talk of maybe adding
> another roundtrip to the San Joaquin in the near
> future?


Unlikely in the near term; I think the state is using all of its slots.

With the state yielding its management role to the locals, perhaps there will be a more aggressive posture about expanding service in the future.

rickycourtney Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So does anyone know why this change is being
> made?
>
> At first we were told the Comet cars would be on
> the 712/717 turn so the cars could spend the night
> in Oakland (in case any major repairs were
> necessary), then right before they went into
> service the decision was made to put the Comet
> cars on the 718/711 turn so the cars would spend 5
> daylight hours in the yard (at least that's what I
> was told.)
>
> Both plans seemed logical for these old cars...
> this one, not so much. These Comet cars will now
> only be in Oakland every other day and from
> experience 702 is one of the busier runs of the
> day (especially on Saturday) since it's the first
> trip Southbound.
>
> Also, unless I'm mistaken all but one Comet car
> has been delivered at this point. Anyone know when
> a second trainset will get the Comet cars and what
> turn it will be used on?
>
> EDIT: I now see that in the original post it says
> that *both* Comet car trainsets will used on the
> 714/703/702/715 turn. Not sure if that was edited
> while I was writing my post.
>
> Posted from iPhone

It had to do with a cost saving measure issue for the company I am not able to state why on here.

The two 717 engineers would make so much money in OT that they could effectively retire early....LOL...

Shogun Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The two 717 engineers would make so much money in
> OT that they could effectively retire
> early....LOL...

Had nothing to do with engineer wages. Lol